Playing your Alignment
Jared explains how to and not to play alignments. Synopsis Jared wants to talk about a much debated topic. What Jared is saying isn't the right answer, but his own insight on the topic of alignment. There are a lot of arguments about what alignments are. Alignments are used to describe the character's attitude towards the world. The first part is how the character looks towards society and order. The second half is general behavior towards everything else. Jared's most important advice is to not worry about it. It should not be a binding contract on how you play your character. Jared feels that several alignments get a bad rap. The biggest is lawful good. Lawful good characters are seen as goody-two shoes, everything is done by the book. A lot of people hate the paladins, because until 5th edition had to be lawful good. They feel like the babysitters, keeping everyone in line. It doesn't need to be the case. Lawful doesn't mean to be following the literal law, but a personal code of ethics. A paladin's deity can be opposed to another one. People mistake lawful good characters for never killing, and bad guys must be taken to a fair trial. Lawful good characters do what they think is right. True neutral is a tough one to do. They are right down the middle and change sides depending on who is losing, because they are true neutral. Jared feels that this is why alignment shouldn't be how you play your character. Causing problems within the party is not how the alignment is designed. The enemies are evil, you aren't joining them because they are winning. Jared can't recommend true neutral to people. Chaotic evil is hard to play properly. Jared's advice is to not play chaotic evil. Whether you back-stab the party, steal from them or do evil things, that usually causes a detriment to other people's fun to yourself. Jared doesn't think people should play an outright evil character. There is no reason why an evil character would travel with a group of heroes, unless they have a good reason in their backstory. Why not make a party of chaotic evil characters? Eventually the party will fight among themselves. Characters and players start fighting and it is no longer fun. Save chaotic evil for bad guys, evil characters and monsters. It is confusing, so perhaps don't use it at all. Fourth edition did not have an alignment system. Once you play for a while, your character's alignment can be penciled in later on. Alignment should not be a binding contract. Jared likes alignment for cleric's spells not being from an evil domain. When someone makes a decision, and when someone says, you're character wouldn't do that because of their alignment, you need to tell that person to stop, because the person playing knows how to play their own character. Good people can be driven to do evil things, evil characters can have a change of heart. They aren't playing your character, and that is going into rules lawyer territory. Diath is chaotic good, and has done evil acts for the greater good. Don't let alignments tell you how to play your character. Category:D&December Category:Videos